Don't get me wrong I love my parents and I'd be stupid not to live at home with all of the opportunities they have given me and especially the one to save money while moving back in. Here's the thing...my dad likes to play this "my house my rules" kinda game. (Insert new eye roll emoji here--which has subsequently become my favorite just so everyone knows).
After not living in this room but a few days here and there for the last 4+ years I'm finally getting it reorganized and I'm finding so many things I hadn't seen in years. Going through drawers that haven't been opened and finding letters and notes and clothes that I haven't seen makes me thankful that I even have a place to keep these things when I'm not here.
I'm blessed with two amazing parents who have continually supported me while I played sports year round, went to camps, various tournaments, joined different clubs, went to my dream school, worked at the best place on the face of this planet and now have welcomed me back home while I go to grad school-with very few charges I might add. As I look at my walls filled with memories from AU, CBG and other things I can't help but see how many people have impacted my life in one way or another. Blessed is an understatement at this point.
I think daily what life will be like once I lose my grandparents, after all they're all I have left. I regret the time I chose to avoid spending with them when I was younger. I appreciate the time I have with them now and I try and go over there every chance I get. My grandpa will be 91 in a few weeks, my grandma not too far behind him. But what I do know is that my grandparents are the reason that I am here today. If it weren't for the endless amounts of peanut butter sandwiches, the "grandaddy loves you"s, the "spending of my inheritance" as I like to joke about and all of the lessons and prayers I have received from them over the years I don't know where I would be.
So here's a funny story, I come home from work on Thursday, around 3:45, to find my dad already here. This is alarming to me because he normally works until 5 and isn't home until 5:30. So me being the nosey person I am, shoutout to you Grandma, I go digging. My form of digging always ends up like an interrogation...I learned from the best. "Why are you here so early?" "What are you doing home?" "You need to be working!" "Are you sick again?" Of course the answer I get from my father is, "Because I wanted to." (Can I insert that eye roll emoji again here? Cause I am.) If you know my dad this is is a normal response so I just move on to my next question which just happens to be, "Did I get any mail today?" His smart response is, "Yeah a bill for a thousand dollars payable directly to me." The laugh I let out probably would've scared anyone else around because it was that horrendous. I told him that even if I did have that amount of money he wasn't getting it from me. My dad has jokes y'all.
Don't get me wrong, (I apparently like this phrase way too much), I love living at home...most of the time. I enjoy being able to spend some time with my parents that I missed out on when I was younger because of how much I travelled, whether it was with them or not. It's kinda nice being the only child for once...sorry Toph. I enjoy the laughs with my mom when we are in the car and the constant harassment from my dad when we're just talking in my parents' room. Its things like that that you don't get at college. Granted some of my friends and residents definitely got both of those from me...sorry guys. I like being able to drive to my grandparents house whenever I want to, just because. I like sitting between my parents and grandparents at my church. Honestly, being home is great and I really appreciate it but home will never be Anderson University to me and vise-versa.
Honestly, this whole "adulting" thing really isn't that bad...for me at least. Yeah USC is definitely no AU but I have been so blessed already and I'm barely 3 weeks into my first semester as a grad student. In case you're reading this and don't know...I applied for grad school at Liberty and was set on going there online so I could stay in Anderson. My dad reminded me that I mentioned if he paid for grad school I'd go to Carolina so someone in the family could have a Carolina degree since he was never able to finish.
After regretfully applying just to appease my parents I finished with a 30-something page application for grad school. It took days to finish and perfect but a week later I had an email asking to set up an interview time with the head of my department and the head of my concentration. After being on duty that weekend I headed down Sunday afternoon to prepare for my Monday afternoon interview. I thought the interview went great as it was very informal and I felt very welcomed and comforted throughout the whole process. I left with an opportunity to look into grad assistantships with CarolinaLIFE, the chance to take an extra class and become a certified ABA therapist and a "possibility" of being accepted...which at this point I knew was a definite by the way Dr. Cristle said, "so when you get your acceptance email..."
A week later I was into grad school before I had even graduated undergrad...and all of this happened within a two week timespan. THE LORD IS GOOD! Not long after I received an email asking to meet with the assistant for CarolinaLIFE and a request for my resumé. I was immediately offered a job and was given dates to attend for orientation for this job as soon as camp ended.
Now here I am almost a month into my job and two and a half weeks into grad school and I'm loving it. I never expected that I would end up at USC...I had it made at AU. It was a small campus, I knew everyone, I was comfortable there, I had a good job outside of school, I was set.
Though it is taking me time to get used to USC and the literal whole city that it encompasses, I am finally getting settled. It took me two weeks to figure out the shuttle but I'm making it. I have some awesome camp friends nearby that always keep me smiling. I have some amazing coworkers who believe that no question is a stupid question. I work for some amazing people and with some amazing students and teachers. I have a bangin' paycheck. I am just overly blessed. More than I could ever ask for.
So after moving back home I am pretty sure my parents are having as much of a love-hate relationship with it as I am sometimes. One night after talking to two of my amazing friends Kayla and Andrew from AU, I broke down and just wanted to quit and it was only the first few days of work, not even school. I hated it here, there were too many people, I didn't know anyone. It just wasn't AU. I even looked into my options for moving back up to Anderson while doing school online and working on AU's campus just so I could be happy again.
But here I am. I'm still in Columbia. I'm still alive. I'm still doing my job and I'm still in school. Why? Because my parents supported me and told me that it would all work out. Because my friends said that they missed me and I missed them too, but that they knew I was always gonna visit. Because my church family knew that I was finally on the right track to doing what I was born to do. Because my campers believed in me enough to wish me luck in grad school and because it's always for them.
So for as long as it takes, Columbia will be home again. At least for a little while. Whether I move back to the upstate after I finish or down to the coast like I would like, I'm just sitting back and enjoying the ride.
I was always told that we have plans and God just laughs at them and says, "Not today, I have something better in mind." Now I believe it. I thought I would leave AU with a degree in SPED but I didn't. I thought I would do grad school online and be fine but I didn't. I thought I would never move back home but I did. I thought I would never graduate after that stupid 40+ page paper but I did. God made it work. He made it work together for MY good and that's all I could ever ask for.
So as I was putting my billions of t-shirts away tonight and cleaning up a little in my room I saw a gift my first CBG secret pal gave me above my bed and it has Jeremiah 29:11 on it.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."
What an amazing comfort that was to me tonight, just when I needed it most. As I read that a song came to mind that truly meant a lot to me as I was in high school. "I may be weak but Your spirit's strong in me. My flesh may fail, but my God You never will."
The Lord always has plans bigger than ours. Take me for example. I'm a perfect example of God saying, "you thought wrong."
My life is changing, faster than I ever thought it would, but here I am. I'm alive, I'm kicking', I'm doin' my thang. But if it weren't for those friends, those campers, those parents, my family and so many others who believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself I wouldn't be the young adult I am today.
So 'adulting' isn't a proper term to me. It's called growing up, being responsible and taking charge and if that's what being an adult is, then lets go. It's gonna be a long ride.
Until then, stay safe fam.
Lauren.
